


Trying to Rebuild and Contuine

by FaboKraken



Series: The Pak Error [4]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, Mild Cursing, descriptions of burns, descriptions of injuries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27559489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaboKraken/pseuds/FaboKraken
Summary: It’s been over a month now since the initial event where Zim’s pak started to process things differently after a fight with Dib, not only resulting in Zim’s realization at the worthlessness of his ‘mission’ but also the realization that things have been very different than what he’d thought them to be.But things came and went, and to those around him, Zim seems to have adjusted, even befriending the siblings Gaz and Dib. The fact is though, Zim is dying. Slowly but surely, and eventually he’s not going to be able to run from this fact. And maybe, he doesn’t want to.
Relationships: Family - Relationship, Friendship - Relationship, platonic - Relationship
Series: The Pak Error [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828627
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	1. Misalignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arc 2 begins: Calculations and Risk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took a bit to figure out, and honestly, still not quite sure about it, but here we go!  
> Also, with this Arc, things are going to get kinda darker, with descriptions of injuries, infection, self-hate, mental problems, etc. So yeaaaaaah.
> 
> Also, if you haven’t, probably should read Arc 1: Mistakes aka Everything Finally Clicked, or else it ain’t gonna make much sense

Zim was getting nervous. Skoodge still wasn’t back, and he was supposed to be back a week ago.   
But there had been no communication, no messages, nothing. It was as though Skoodge had simply ceased to exist.

And that was terrifying. 

Zim himself wasn’t feeling his best either, there was a deep exhaustion creeping throughout his body when at first it had just been a dull pull, his breathing had started to grow more ragged and desperate over the last few days, and he was certain that the increasing heat being created by his pak was starting to burn the flesh around it horribly.

_He’d be fine once Skoodge got back._

Zim just had to wait for Skoodge to get back! The Irken would come back! He - he wouldn’t let Zim die... right? This wasn’t purposeful!

_Was it? Was he that much of an annoyance?_

Zim shuddered and blinked until his vision cleared some, stumbling to his feet as he headed deeper into the base. He’d already tried to do some repairs on his pak today, but his claws wouldn’t stop shaking. 

_That wasn’t good._

The Computer was speaking and he knew Mini-moose was hanging around him, but the defect just ignored them. He’d be fine. 

_He was dying. Wasn’t he? Why didn’t he care?_

Zim found the med-bay, closing his eyes with the throb of another headache.

It was fine. He’d be fine. He nodded softly to himself, sharply barking an order for the Computer to disconnect itself from the main system ( _this was stupid, what was he thinking?_ ) and for Mini-moose to shut down ( _couldn’t have them tell Dib or Gaz, he was fine, he’d be fine!_ )

And they argued with him about it, but they had to obey. Zim could always try to do it manually, like he’d done with GIR a couple days prior.

He’d managed ( _why was he doing this again?_ )

Zim sunk onto the med bay table and laid there, he was just a little bit tired.   
  
That was all. He wouldn’t be a bother. He just needed some sleep. His vision was blurred and his head felt like it filled with cotton or something. Zim was going to be fine.

Of course he was! He was the Almighty... Almighty Zim... _no he wasn’t_.


	2. Investigation and Discover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of the chapters that will contain more graphic descriptions of injury and illness and that sort of thing. So just be aware of that.
> 
> I will mark the beginning of this text that describes the injury and illness with a series of ****** at the beginning and a ****** at the end if you would prefer to skip this section.

Zim wasn’t in school that Monday. But Dib didn't think much of it, sometimes the alien would admittedly skip class or Skool in general on occasion. And honestly? It wasn’t like the Irken was really planning to destroy humanity anymore, so Dib agreed with Gaz that it wasn’t that big of an issue.

The weird thing was that Zim didn’t answer the door when Gaz went over to ask him about a new video game later that afternoon.  
It was okay though, odd, but Gaz didn’t mind it much. Sometimes Zim was a weirdo that zoned out and shit. So thinking not much of it, she didn’t really mention it to her brother, who had stayed home to watch a movie marathon with Professor Membrane and Clembrane.

However, Zim wasn’t there the next day either. And that was bordering strange. So after Skool let out, they decided to visit his base. 

Dib hummed mildly as he stalked up to Zim’s base, glancing about before knocking on the door. He was lightly bouncing on the heels of his feet as he began to whistle a melody that had been stuck in his head since lunch.

There was no answer.

The boy glanced at his sister and Gaz knocked on the door with a sharp yell, “Hey! Idiot!”

There was still no answer.

With a mild frown, but the melody still on his mind, Dib shrugged and rung the doorbell.

Minutes went by with the siblings waiting, but again, no answer. 

Gaz finally glanced up at the base with narrowed eyes and a puzzled huff, “Okay. That’s... what the hell? Is he literally ignoring us?”

The girl was tapping her foot with what most would think was impatience, but was a nervous gesture.  
Her brother merely shrugged, pausing his whistling, “I don’t know why he’d do that. But yeah. I’ll admit that’s weird, you came here yesterday though, right?”

Gaz just frowned, “Well, duh, but... well it’s not like he answered the door yesterday. I haven’t seen GIR either.”

The two glanced up at the house again, before Dib sighed, “He probably started doing genetic experiments again. He got _really_ into that last time, remember?”

The girl merely huffed, “But still, now that I’m really thinking about it, why hasn’t the door just... you know, opened for us? His computer controls his base doesn't it?”

Dib nodded slowly, tapping his hand mildly against his hip, “Oh. Yeah.”

Gaz merely crossed her arms, “Think something is up?”

The boy began to hum the melody softly, “We should check it out.” He walked along to kick at one of the lawn gnomes, and once seeing no reaction, he shrugged and merely moved to open one of the windows. 

Promptly ignoring Gaz’s raised eyebrow, Dib wormed his way in. After briefly calling out the alien’s name and glancing about, he pushed open the door for Gaz, the girl taking to immediately stalking in with sharp eyes glancing around quickly.

“So where do you think he is?”

Dib started along towards the kitchen, “I’d say down in his ‘lair.’”

Gaz snorted softly, “That is such a cheesy thing to call it.”

The boy just shrugged, “It’s kinda cool.”

“Sure.”   
  
So they headed downwards, into the depths of the base with a sense of building unease and uncertainty.

Espically due to how oddly dark it was down there. Usually, lights and gadgets would be blinking on and creating sound, but save for a few lights that flickered on above them and the mild hum of the base itself, it didn’t sit right.  
  
Something was off.

Dib couldn’t help but creep closer to Gaz as they walked, anxious thoughts pouring from his brain to his lips. “Why is it s-so dark down here? Are- are we going to get ambushed? It’s... it’s too quiet! Gaz why is it so quiet? I-“

The boy contuined to whisper harshly to his sibling, but Gaz wouldn’t be lying if some of the same thoughts he rambled off weren’t drifting about her own mind as well.

_It was too quiet._

_It was too dark._

_It was too **dead**._

Gaz felt a shudder down her spine, inhaling sharply, “It’s probably just because Zim did something stupid... a-and, and now things are like this. He’s probably just sitting around too absorbed into another horror movie or something.”

Dib nodded softly though neither believed her statement, something was wrong. They knew it, and they feared to find out what it was.

Yet they contuined onwards. 

Until they saw something emerge from the darkness with a sharp ‘neh!’  
Dib jumped at Mini-moose’s sudden appearance from the darkness, and Gaz wouldn’t be lying if she said that her heart had skipped a beat as well, but it seemed the robot had no time for them to regain their bearings.

The purple moose merely squeaked at them harshly, zipping sharply infront of them and then back into the darkness he’d come from. This process repeated itself only three time before Gaz got the message and grabbed her brother’s hand. “He’s leading us. Come on, Dib!”

Dib blinked with a nervous swallow. “Okay!” He was dragged along as Mini-moose’s eyes began to glow sharply as he lead them down an almost completely dark hallway.

The robot slowed only as they approached a contrastingly brightly lit room, easing to an almost stand still as he gave another, softer squeak. Gaz paused as well and glanced into the room, letting go of Dib’s hand with a nervous huff.  
Dib merely followed after starting to ask a question, before cutting himself off at the sight before them. 

The room was one of the few that had all its lights on, the odd glow illuminating an army of robotic arms that emerged from the ceiling as they seemed to busily work on something in the center of the room.   
  
Gaz opened her mouth to speak before a familiar voice spoke up, “Finally! I was hoping you two would show up sooner! But it’s whatever, I guess. I could use some help about now, I can only do so much when I AM DISCONNECTED FROM MY OWN SERVER.”

Dib glanced up, “Computer?”

The voice merely snapped in response, “No. I’m the fucking Queen of England. Ugh! I don’t have time for this, I need one of you to manually reboot my system right now or Zim dies.”

Dib blinked as he tried to process the last part of that statement, “ _What_?”

Mini-moose gave a sharper squeak and Gaz quickly sputtered out a response, “Wh-where do we go to do this?”

“Follow Mini-moose. And I can not stress this enough, but for the love of Irk, do it **quickly**.”

Gaz straightened and as Mini-moose zipped out of the room, the girl followed closely behind.

Leaving Dib still reeling, “Zim’s going to _die_? What?!”

The Computer sighed, before softening its voice, “Maybe. The idiot tried to make sure no one would find out, but his condition has been getting worse due to the whole... pak incident.” The arms seemed to slow for a moment before jerking back to their work, Dib trying to peer at the arm’s focal point, connecting what must be at their center with a growing dread. “He acted stupidly and now... I don’t know.”

Dib shifted his footing and cautiously began to move towards the center.

“Are you sure you want to see that?”

The boy froze before he understood. Dib shakily nodded his head and some of the arms made room for him as they contuined to work a number of machines and devices far beyond Dib’s understanding.

And at the center was Zim. Lying on a table, settled on his side as a few arms seemed to be tending to him. It was, wrong.

That was the only way Dib could describe it. Wrong.

_Zim shouldn’t be still. Zim shouldn’t look like that. Zim shouldn’t be dying._

Zim looked terrible. 

******  
  
The alien was sickly pale, face gleaming with moisture and body trembling with fever. Overall he looked nearly dead. There was barely any breath that moved Zim’s chest, a rattling hiss that Dib thought was one of the medical machines actually easing from Zim’s agape mouth. 

Dib shuddered and made his way to slowly walk around the table, careful to not get in the way of the Computer’s work. He inhaled sharply when he saw Zim’s back, the white gown that the computer had fitted on the Irken split open from his neck to lower back to allow easy access to the pak.   
Dib was horrified to see the condition of the pak though. It was split apart, peeled open by several arms while others worked tirelessly on the inside of it. It was a mess of wires and odd gadgets that seemed to never end, an impossible array of machinery and technology.

The flesh around the pak itself was oozing and a yellowish-gray in color, burnt and swollen. There were two arms that seemed to specifically work on draining it and trying to clean it. But there was an immense heat that Dib could feel despite his distance from the machine, and despite the efforts to cool the pak, Dib could practically hear the flesh being burnt. He could practically smell it with how close he was. He felt sick.

******

Dib eased away from the table Zim was lying on with bile rising in his throat. He felt a shudder go through him and wandered back to where the robotic arms covered Zim from his sight.

“What happened?” Dib’s voice was practically a whimper.

The Computer sighed, and Dib could swear its voice trembled as well, “The pak is essentially... uh destroying itself... as it is simultaneously trying to fix itself. It’s overheated, burning into Zim’s o-organic body, causing his fever and body’s instability. Added with the features in the machine that should work to maintain prime health, these features shut down, allowing for Zim’s health to further dwindle dangerously.”

Dib opened his mouth to ask another question but found his mouth dry and his brain too busy to speak. The boy winced and slowly sank to the ground with his knees hugged to his chest.

He didn’t know what to do, but this... this was his fault wasn’t it? Dib had been the one to mess with Zim’s pak, even if it wasn’t intended. What... Dib sniffled. “Is he going to... going to be okay?”

The Computer didn’t speak for a moment, then cautiously, ever so gently, it replied. “I. I don’t know.”

Dib felt his breath hitch when suddenly a rumble went through the base. 

The busy arms froze.   
Then everything went dark. 

Everything was dark and quiet save for Dib’s breath, Zim’s rattling hiss, and the whirl of the overheating pak.   
  
Dib jumped to his feet before stumbling blindly into the near wall. He gazed fearfully at the ceiling when suddenly the lights were flaring back to life.  
He could see the robotic arms suspended, as though frozen in time, before the arms began working quicker than before.

Dib barely trusted himself to breath as he waited to see what had happened, until the Computer sighed in seeming relief.

“Are-are you back in the system?” Dib glanced briefly at the arms before looking up at the ceiling, pointedly not focusing anywhere else or his mind would wander. 

The Computer responded with a laugh, “Yes! Hopefully that means I can focus on easing my manual efforts and start to reconnect some of the life support functions to an unassisted stance.”

Dib nodded softly and leaned heavily against the wall with a weak laugh, “Oh. Okay.”

~

Gaz was curious as to why Mini-moose or the Computer hadn’t rebooted the system already. Espically if the situation was so dire. But she didn’t have time for answers and it wasn’t that difficult to do as she read over the instructions given to her by the purple robot.

Though she admittedly jumped out of her skin when the whole house rumbled before the power went out.  
Gaz’s breath hitched for a moment, fearing she’d done something wrong, before everything seemed to resume what it had been doing and the base seemed to fully come back to prime working function.

She just hoped it was enough. Gaz didn’t like be unsure about a situation. She didn’t like being scared.

But fear still trembled through her as she followed Mini-moose back to her brother and Zim.

She didn’t want to lose her friend.


End file.
